Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement RENAMO, stormed out of a meeting with President Joaquim Chissano last week, thus breaking off the dialogue between the two men that began in December, news reports said. Chissano told reporters that when, after five hours of discussion, Dhlakama left the room, he handed the president a letter, "which shows that he was already prepared to break off the talks".

The key disagreement has been over the appointment of provincial governors, with Dhlakama insisting that RENAMO nominate governors for the six provinces where RENAMO won a majority of votes in the 1999 general elections. "We said: let's take it to the assembly. We are ready to extend the dialogue to the parliamentarians," said Chissano. "But RENAMO thinks that's a waste of time. They demand that their governors be appointed by May. So Dhlakama announced he was breaking off the dialogue. That's why he's not here," Chissano told reporters. "The only thing that interested him was appointing governors at any cost without the slightest consideration for our institutions or for the law."